[dwilli]

Six months is the max on Med deployment in normal times, What else can the ship do. It's either comes back to homeport or relieve the personnel on station. That would be expensive.
The ship has scheduled yard (probably) maintinance to perform. I see no sign of invasion one way or another

[mdittmar]

I see no sign of invasion one way or another

Bingo

[Jake0001]

"That would be expensive."

.......and dangerous. Like we would want to park one in Yemen and see if our sailors can achieve a modicum of relief or relaxation in port there.

Every terrorist within 1,000 miles would converge on that port within days.

Israel would be almost as risky, except the ships would be safe.

[SauronOfMordor]

If you were going to start the war, you would want a few carriers in reserve, so that you could send them in to relieve the carriers that take part in the first phase of the war. This way, the GW can head back with a refreshed crew just as some other carrier's crew is getting tired from round-the-clock flight operations